Calculus and Spotwalla, not my best subjects...

Ahhhh, what a beautiful Friday morning and a wonderful start to yet another three day weekend. The birds were chirping and singing away, the sun welcoming another day and the temperature hovering at a most pleasant 68ºF.

This is definitely riding weather.... but where to go? Why not check Bobskoot's Spot page, make a few calculations and surprise the weary traveller for lunch?

MotoBlogger "A" leaves Crescent City, California at 7:31 AM, while MotoBlogger "B" leaves Corvallis, Oregon at 8:59 AM. Both MotoBloggers are traveling at the suggested speed limit of 55 mph, what time and where will the two MotoBloggers meet?

Pretty simple right? Pull up Google Map, chart my course to meet BobSkoot in Reedsport.


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Evidently there was a minor miscalculation in my calculus word problem, one cannot expect either MotoBlogger  to maintain the suggested speed limit of 55 mph. MotoBlogger "A" isn't expecting MotoBlogger "B" nor does MotoBlogger "B" expect MotoBlogger "A" to stop for breakfast.

I rode out Highway 34 and halfway up the Alsea twisties before coming upon a logging truck, this will not do, so I turned around and rode back down to the bottom to try another run. The great thing about riding solo is one can be easily distracted, unfortunately riding solo one can be easily distracted. You don't know how tempting it was to take a quick detour up Marys Peak.

But now I need to make up some lost time, oh how I love the desolate roads of an early weekday morning.

I pulled into Waldport and made a left turn down Highway 101 south toward Florence. Evidently every single tourist piloting a lumbering Brontosaurus was also up and at 'em early this morning.
(No offense Gary).

Online photo of lumbering Brontosaurus

No matter, I was ahead of schedule and made it to Florence with time to spare. I stopped at a local Bi-Mart store to use the restroom and call Trobairitz for an update on BobSkoot's location.

Bob had stopped for breakfast in Port Orford and is on the move again. A quick calculation puts us about 90 miles apart so I am off to Reedsport where I was instructed to stop and phone Trobairitz for another update. The problem with owning dumb phones is reception is spotty at best and they don't have bluetooth to link to my Sena, so I have to stop to check messages or make calls. This requires removing my helmet and I couldn't be bothered.

I hadn't seen BobSkoot in Reedsport so a darted down to Winchester Bay. Well, wouldn't you know it, I passed who I thought was Bob just north of Winchester Bay so I pulled over, checked a text message and turned around to race back to Reedsport.

Now there aren't too many riders that I haven't been able to catch, evidently I am about to add one more to the list. I checked every gas station in Reedsport thinking Bob may have recognized A BRIGHT ORANGE TRIUMPH TIGER and stopped to wait for me, but no luck.

No way he was that far ahead of me, but I didn't see him so it was a possibility. I took off to Florence to catch him, I felt like I was chasing my tail. I checked every gas station in Florence thinking Bob would need fuel soon, but no sight of him. I called Trobairitz again for an update, "he is south of Florence, go back to the bridge and catch him" and off I went back through town to wait at the bridge. I called again, but Spotwalla hadn't updated yet. This is where I realized Spotwalla has a 20 minute lag and I didn't have Bob's Spot page address to give her, all I could do was wait....

"He turned East onto 126 toward Mapleton, go get him" and I was off again.

I've ridden with Bob before, it's not like him to ride fast but I was just not catching him today. I stopped in Mapleton to call for an update.... no cell service. I had a 50/50 chance that he headed toward Eugene on Hwy 126 or toward Triangle Lake on Hwy 36, personally I had enough motorhomes for the day and I hate 126, so Triangle Lake it was.

Needless to say, 250 miles and a full tank of fuel later, I waited for Bob at home. I never did catch him. However, I learned that it was him I passed in Winchester Bay and he did stop for gas in Reedsport after stopping BEHIND McDonald's to use the restroom. He snuck past me in Florence by skirting up 126 while I was north of town and we passed each other once more in Corvallis as I rode by the Team Oregon headquarters.

We did enjoy an evening of visiting, he saw me off Saturday morning as I was scheduled to teach and he graciously took my seat at Saturday morning coffee.

Thanks for the spirited ride Bob.

Sacrifices... not necessarily

There was so much going on this weekend, we normally attend our local Da Vinci Days festivities but with other events going on this same weekend such as the BMW MOA Rally in Salem and the 34th Annual Cascade Cycling Classic in Bend that available Team Oregon instructors were in short supply.

I knew months in advance and made sure to leave my calendar open so I would be available to teach this weekend. Even though it would've been neat to check out the rally, meet up with other riders and visit the numerous vendors in attendance, I don't own a BMW nor do I much care for large gatherings of people, let alone a bunch of BMW snobs ;)

The Cycling Classic needed volunteer marshals to ride motorcycles for the event and direct traffic, shuttle photographers and cameramen as well as other official duties. I don't much care for the desert of Central Oregon, especially in the middle of summer. I grew up in hot, dry, desert country of sagebrush, sand and pine trees so I suspect I didn't miss much there.

What I did do though was spend an awesome weekend with a fantastic group of new riders. I had so much fun, the students thoroughly enjoyed themselves and each one of them passed with flying colors! This was my first class where every student passed both the skill evaluation and the knowledge test, not a single retest was issued.

So it wasn't me that made the sacrifice at all, I feel bad for the other instructors that missed out on the opportunity to teach this particular class of students. What a great weekend!

I pulled the trigger

On the advice of several fellow motorcycle safety instructors, including peer pressure from a certain someone in Minnesota and a blog challenge from another, I ordered an Aerostich Roadcrafter Light one piece suit.

What's in the box?

I've been teaching and saving my pennies for some time now to fund such a purchase, but it was the extreme temperature differences in my commute that had me finally placing an order. I head off to work at the butt crack of dawn when temperatures hover around the 40ºF to 50ºF mark, then I head home in the late afternoon heat of 82ºF to 95ºF plus. This means that I am layering and wearing my winter gear to get to work and packing my mesh gear to ride home. Where to put all this gear? My saddlebags are busting at the hinges trying to hold all my jackets, liners, sweaters, gloves, glasses, visors and of course  my lunch. There has to be a better way.

Gore-tex

I took advantage of Aerostich's Fourth of July Sale where they offered the TF3 shoulder, elbow and knee pads for free with the purchase of a suit. It is rare to find such a deal so I jumped on it.

Suit, pads, gloves and t-shirt

Of course I had to add their Hot Weather Vegan Gloves and a T-shirt to the order. Karen at Aerostich said that the Vegan gloves were their most popular gloves but their supplier quit making them and they are trying to source another manufacturer. I wanted to order the winter gloves as well but they were out of my size. Who would have thought Vegan as being so popular...  we ride among you.

Happy boy

I managed to wear it for an 80 mile round trip ride to Eugene bike night and love it. The convenience of slipping it on and off is well worth the price of admission, although I am still new at it so the quick 10 seconds or less is more like a clumsy 20 seconds.

Struggling with the zipper

I'm still fine tuning the padding location, the collar is a bit stiff and I'll need to experiment with layering during next week's commute, but so far I am very happy. Off for a ride today to break it in, figure out the zipper and cut down my mount and dismount time.

Addendum: Rode out to the coast today and the suit was comfortable from the 95º heat of the valley to the low 70ºs of the coast and back to the valley heat. I like it!

Bring your desires down to your present means. Increase them only when your increased means permit.  ~Aristotle 

A Student Asks...

While teaching the classroom portion of the BRT last night we discussed countersteering. Yes, the ever confusing, often discussed yet never fully understood countersteer!

Try to explain countersteer to someone and watch their eyes gloss over, explain it to 24 students in a classroom and you may as well be teaching physics.... wait, what?

PHYSICS!?! What does physics have to do with riding a motorcycle? 

Confused yet?

We use the terms "to turn right, press right" and "to turn left, press left".

This is where I confused the students, but this is counterintuitive.... close, you've got the "counter" part down, now let's work on the "steering" part. I mentioned that they've been doing it all their lives on a bicycle, they just didn't know it. Well, talk about adding to the confusion, now they're thinking back to the last time they rode a bicycle, which may be as early as last week but more than likely when they were twelve years old. 

One can explain countersteering until they're blue in the face, it is just something one has to experience on the bike in a controlled environment under the watchful eye of professional instructors to truly appreciate. 

SoundRider.com

After class, a student approached me for clarification and asked "do you press down on the bars or push forward, because you motioned to push but said to press?"

Respectfully, yet somewhat confused myself, I reiterated, "Press left, go left and press right to go right so press forward on the handgrip, not down".

This is where the male brain and female brain work differently and she provided a completely different perspective. 

She explained her definition of press and push while motioning "you press down on a table, so this is press" 

Press

 "This is push, so you want us to push on the bars?"

Push

A young male student shared his perspective and stated that he thinks of push as a pushup. Now we're all confused. 

Pushup vs. bench press 

Push a button vs. press a button

Push your luck vs. press your luck

push  

/po͝oSH/

Verb Exert force on (someone or something), typically with one's hand, in order to move them away from oneself or the origin of the force.

press  

/pres/

Verb Move or cause to move into a position of contact with something by exerting continuous physical force: "he pressed his face to the glass". Put (someone or something) to a specified use, esp. as a temporary or makeshift measure.

Either way:

Summer Solstice

It's the first day of summer, time for a new blog theme and background, I change it with every season. Brandy and I like to go for a ride to celebrate or observe the Solstices and Equinoxes but Friday I was called into work, that is if you call riding motorcycles for Team Oregon "work".

I've been helping out Pat Hahn lately; getting together a couple times this Spring to shoot video for several projects he has been putting together. Pat is a fantastic guy and easy to talk to, he is very patient yet maintains the same energy and enthusiasm for "take one" as he does for "take umpteenth".

However, he did fail to mention one small detail this time...

I have taken the ART class (Advanced Rider Training), the RSP (Rider Skills Practice), a corning clinic and a braking clinic all under the watchful eye of veteran instructors and the higher ups and all in a group setting with other riders and instructors.  Needless to say, to have the Director of Team Oregon follow you (extremely close) running cornering techniques, traffic scenarios and emergency maneuvers over and over on public roads while being on video you can understand how one may be somewhat apprehensive. Once I overcame my initial trepidation and discovered that it is much more difficult to be an error rider than it looks, I began to relax and enjoy myself.

Irondad was present, snapping "behind the scene" photos, hence my new header photo. I was goofing off and quickly gave Dan my best imitation of his police stance.

Smirking "IronBrad"

I didn't bring my camera as I was too busy modeling in front of many other cameras to use it, but I sense a blog post from the Intrepid Commuter is in the works. We had a lot of fun, some great and even unexpected footage and many miles covered. I hope to share more photos as they surface and come available.

Happy Summer Solstice to my friends in the Northern Hemisphere. My condolences, a Winter Solstice to friends in the Southern Hemisphere.


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